This past June,
the White House convened a conference in Los Angeles, California, titled:
"Internet Summit: Digital Media for Children & Teens." The Summit
held panels on such topics as on-line content, learning on the Internet, and
marketing. Later the same month, San Francisco, California hosted "Digital
Kids '98," with guest speakers including David Britt, CEO and President
of the Children's Television Workshop. Disney Online was a major sponsor of
both events.

Do we need more proof that the Internet, once the province of dweebs, nerds,
hackers and people without a life, is now on its way to becoming the newest
"happiest place on earth?"

The History of the Internet...In 25 Words or Less(Okay, so we're kidding about the 25 words part!) In the Internet's Pleistocene
era -- circa 1980s -- only the government and large educational institutions
were involved or interested in this worldwide network of linked computers.
Then in 1991 an American working in Switzerland named Tim Berners-Lee came
up with a way to transmit images via the Internet, and the World Wide Web
was born. The rest, as they say, is too tedious to repeat here.

Skip forward a few eras "net time," and we
find ourselves remarking, "My how the baby has grown!" From only
50 web sites in 1993, the World Wide Web now has 100,000 new web pages going
on-line every hour. Before 1995 or so, there were hardly any kids of which
to speak of on-line. Today, there are 10 million kids surfing the web, and
by the millennium, 20 million kids will be cybersurfing. Based on a recent
survey, kids are now spending 11 hours a week watching television and 3.6
hours a week on-line. Interestingly, girls are slightly ahead of the boys;
they are on-line an average of 3.7 hours a week, while boys use the Internet
an average of 3.5 hours per week.

No one knows where it's going to end, but everyone wants a piece of the action.
Educators and entertainers are no exception. Schools are rushing to educate
this eager new audience, and entertainment companies are rushing to...well,
entertain, and hopefully, to educate as well.

Masters of Their Domain (Names)Who better to reach kids on the World Wide Web than the companies who've
been hugely successful at doing it on television? While many of the Fortune
500 companies are still struggling over how best to use this new medium, companies
like Disney, Nickelodeon, and even gray, staid PBS have jumped in with both
feet.

The reasoning isn't difficult to fathom. The web is where the kids are. Unlike
many grownups, children have no fear of this new technology; on the contrary,
they embrace it. The same kids who wore out the joysticks on their Nintendos
and Playstations (and wore out their parents in the process), are now mousing
and clicking, playing many of the same games on the World Wide Web. In fact,
the Web is beginning to successfully compete for the audience that used to
watch Saturday morning cartoons. As a result, the entertainment companies
have had to adapt. They did so by creating entertainment, with a bit of education,
on the World Wide Web.

Mixing entertainment and education is not a new concept. Television has been
doing it for years in some of their Saturday morning animated shows, like
Fat Albert and Captain Planet. With the advent of cable channels,
like Discovery and The Learning Channel, and new FCC educational regulations,
these kind of educational-entertainment shows have multiplied. Now similar
programming is blossoming on the Internet.

Disney On the WebThe 800-pound gorilla of children's entertainment companies is, of course,
Disney. As befits their standing in traditional entertainment -- theme parks,
television, film, cable channels -- they are also the largest presence on
the World Wide Web, with a separate entity, Disney Online, overseeing their
two separate Web sites (the new buzzword is "portals"), Disney.com
(www.disney.com), a free site, and a subscription-based site, Disney Blast.
At the Digital Kids Conference, guest speaker Jake Weinbaum, President of
Buena Vista Internet Services, said that today's kids are the Internet Generation,
and they are growing up in an interactive world. They are learning, thinking,
and analyzing in a non-linear way. Disney Online wants to provide content
to meet their needs, offering games and activities for kids on both their
free site and their subscription site.

Disney isn't just for children however. According to Disney spokesperson Rebecca
Anderson, Disney.com is "the number one parenting web site on the Internet,"
due to "Family" (www.family.com), an on-line parenting resource
with advice on nutrition, recipes and activities for families.

Disney has figured out how to provide what kids like, Anderson explains, by
bringing Disney's classic cartoon personalities to the new medium. "Characters
are our heart and soul," Anderson states. "We don't just want to
recycle television shows or films, but find new ways to bring our characters
to the web."

Nickelodeon on the WebIf Disney Online is the 800 pound gorilla of the `net, Nickelodeon (www.nick.com)
is the large orangutan. Although its reputation for edgier kids' shows sets
it apart from even-your-grandmother-would-approve Disney, the Nickelodeon
web site at nick.com is as safe as grandma's house. Along with its own Nickelodeon
pages featuring its signature characters and shows, there's Nick Jr. for younger
kids, and Nick-At-Nite, with clips and broadcast schedules about shows running
on Nickelodeon's cable channel. Nickelodeon is rapidly building a brand loyalty
on the Internet to rival Disney Online.

Everybody's Doing ItEven PBS is getting into the act. Visit the kids' section (www.pbs.org/kids)
of their web site and you can drop anchor in "The Big Harbor" with
this newly redesigned companion site to the popular PBS children's program,
Theodore Tugboat. Here you can download coloring pages, activity sheets,
a screensaver and wallpaper, read the new story "Hank and the Hug,"
play an on-line memory game, and color your favorite characters with a Java
coloring tool.

Turner Learning, the educational division of Turner
Broadcasting (learning.turner.com), uses the Internet "to promote company
programming, Cartoon Network being a good example of an overwhelming success
with over 2 million page views daily. The future of the Internet is uncertain
at this point, but it would be reasonable to assume that programming on-demand,
games and other children-based activities will be perfect for this type of
environment."

On the other side of the pond in the U.K., Tom Calthrop,
of Smudge (www.bbc.co.uk/education/laac/story/sb2.htm), creates web sites
that are targeted toward learning experiences. The interactive adventures
and games are featured on the BBC educational web site and typically star
cartoon characters. The goal is to create a fun, entertaining, and educational
experience. Their sites appeal to parents by having rich content. Calthrop
believes that many parents still watch cartoons alongside their children.
"We encourage parents and teachers to participate. Parents do like our
sites and we think it's important that children are not left for hours in
front of the computer -- or TV for that matter."

When discussing whether the Internet may be used, like
cable, for reruns of popular cartoon shows, Calthrop doesn't think TV reruns
would be that successful: "It's important to remember that the web is
fully interactive, and until TV gets there the web provides the potential
as a better learning environment." An example is Smudge's participation
in the BBC's animal activity center on the web. Their goal is to get five
year-olds to use computers and learn control of the mouse.
The Darker Side of the WebWhile we have so far painted the bright side of the Internet, there is
a dark side. We're not talking about the dangers of sex and violence that
seem to invade most discussions of kids and the web. Indeed those dangers
do exist, but they are like the back streets of any large city -- they can
be avoided with a little knowledge. In the view of Dr. John Richards, Senior
Vice President of Turner Learning, "The problem with the Internet is
that it is a collection of information with little definition or no restrictions
-- this is both its strength and greatest weakness."

At the Digital Kids conference in San Francisco, Joanne Roberts, a former
teacher who now creates web sites for teenagers, remarked, "There's a
lot of negative press about the Internet. It's really a very valuable experience
for kids, and as long as you teach them basic safe behavior outside of the
house, the same rules can apply inside the house, using the Internet. Give
them information about safety, but don't become paranoid."

The problem facing everyone who creates content for the web is how to police
the net without creating a police state. What should worry those who worry
about the future of their kids, is the potential for non-learning on the web.
Kids understand safety on the Internet. What they don't understand is critical
thinking -- how to analyze the information that engulfs them, how to judge
what they experience on-line, how to ask the proper questions.

The Future of the WebEveryone agrees that content is the key to success on the Internet. But
there is little agreement on what makes good content. Based on our research,
the keys to good edutainment web content for children seem to be:

Providing a "safe harbor" for kids to
enter.

Providing an opportunity to learn skills.

Offering characters and content familiar to kids.

Providing a way to interact with the larger community.

Clearly kids today are part of a new generation --
a post-television generation. A few short years ago, kids were consumers.
Today they are participants in the web experience, and they create as well
as consume. Scott Webb, senior vice president of Nickelodeon Media Works,
has said, "I think kids are thirsty to understand how the world works,
and television can do only so much of that. The Web is a medium that requires
thinking and doing, and that's what kids are wired for...the Web is the perfect
medium for kids."

Ted Pedersen and Francis Moss have collaborated on more than 100 animated
TV episodes -- from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the current Pocket
Dragons. They are also the authors of two Internet books for kids: Internet
For Kids and Make Your Own Web Page! A Guide for Kids, both published
by the Price Stern Sloan imprint of Penguin Putnam.

Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor
by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.